Alison is a public law practitioner with a wide ranging claimant practice, including in immigration and asylum, prison law, social welfare, and EU law. She also acts in civil claims for damages against public authorities, particularly unlawful detention and discrimination claims. In 2010, she was shortlisted for the Young Legal Aid Barrister of the Year award by the Legal Aid Practitioners Group.
Immigration and asylum
Alison is regularly instructed in immigration and asylum appeals in both tiers of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber and in related judicial review claims. She also advises on the preparation of fresh asylum and human rights claims. She is experienced in dealing with urgent judicial review challenges to removal.
Alison is recommended for immigration in the Legal 500 2010 edition, where she is described as "the essence of calm". She has provided training on immigration issues including on the new unified tribunals structure (in June 2010), on age disputes in immigration cases in light of the Supreme Court decision in A v Croydon LBC [2009] UKSC 8 (in January 2011), and on Article 8 in deportation appeals (in February 2011).
Recent significant cases include:
- Alison has acted as junior counsel (led initially by Mark Henderson, and now, with Mark Henderson, by Dinah Rose QC) in R (NS) v SSHD [2010] EWCA Civ 990, the test case on the legality of transfers to Greece under the Dublin Regulation which in the course of the domestic proceedings confirmed that the UK had no opt out from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in the UK. In July 2010, the Court of Appeal decided to refer seven questions about the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Common European Asylum System to the Court of Justice of the European Union (Case C-411/10). The issues raised by the reference are very significant and the CJEU's judgment will have wide-reaching implications both for the UK and across the EU.
- Alison also represented the appellant in SK (Zimbabwe) [2010] UKUT 327 (IAC), in which the Upper Tribunal considered the application of the exclusion clause in Article 1F(a) of the Refugee Convention on the grounds of involvement in crimes against humanity in the case of a woman who had been a member of a Zanu-PF youth militia and involved in invasions of white farms in Zimbabwe.
- In June 2010, Alison acted with Martin Westgate QC and Mark Henderson in the CMX litigation, on a pro bono basis. CMX challenged the closure of Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ), previously the largest and most highly respected specialist provider of publicly funded asylum advice. Its closure was attributed to changes in the public funding regime, and the litigation achieved significant concessions by both the Legal Services Commission and the UK Border Agency to try to protect the position of the thousands of vulnerable migrants represented by RMJ, who suddenly found themselves unrepresented.
EU law
As well as being instructed in NS, Alison has recently acted as junior counsel to Simon Cox on two cases raising significant issues of EU law in the context of entitlement to welfare benefits.
- In R (Tilianu) v SSWP [2010] EWCA Civ 1397, the appellant challenged a decision that he did not have a right to reside in the UK as a worker when, after a period of self-employment followed by a period of illness during which he was hospitalised, he was involuntarily unemployed. The Court of Appeal construed the EU Residence Directive (2004/38) as limiting a right of residence in such circumstances to those who had formerly been employed workers.
- Patmalniece v SSWP (hearing November 2010, judgment awaited): Alison was junior to Simon Cox in the Supreme Court in this case which argued that the restriction of State Pension Credit to those with a right to reside in the UK was unlawfully discriminatory on grounds of nationality against other EU citizens who were habitually resident in the UK.
Deprivation of liberty
Alison is especially interested in issues arising out of unlawful detention under the Immigration Acts. She has extensive experience of bail hearings in the Tribunal, regularly acting pro bono for Bail for Immigration Detainees. She frequently advises on claims for damages for unlawful detention and has successfully settled a number of claims against the Home Office. She has a particular interest in the lawfulness of the detention of children for immigration purposes, and of their treatment while detained including in particular the use of force to enforce removal, a topic on which she gave a briefing to the Strategic Litigation for the Rights of Children Network in October 2010.
Alison also regularly advises on claims for damages for false imprisonment and related breaches of human rights arising in other contexts, including detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 and in prison and police stations.
Prison law
Alison appears regularly before the Parole Board and advises on legal issues arising from imprisonment including claims for disability and race discrimination, and challenges to categorisation and allocation decisions. She provided training on adjudication appeals and challenges at the Association of Prison Lawyers' conference in February 2011.
Recent cases have included:
- R (Baybasin) v MOJ (November 2010) in which Alison was instructed as junior to Paul Bowen. The MOJ settled this claim for unlawful disability discrimination by a paraplegic wheelchair user who had been held in appalling conditions in HMP Belmarsh since February 2004 the week before a five-day hearing in the High Court. The MOJ accepted that it had unlawfully discriminated against Mr Baybasin by failing to provide him the means to use the toilet and bathe independently, apologised to him, and paid him compensation for the injury to his feelings.
- A case in which the Governor of a prison accepted that he had acted unlawfully in excluding a foreign national prisoner subject to deportation action from consideration by a full 'ROTL' board of his application for release on temporary licence. He also agreed, exceptionally, to recategorise the Claimant foreign national as a category D prisoner despite ongoing appeals against deportation.
Social welfare law
As well as the EU law cases noted above, Alison also acts in challenges to decisions made by local authorities in connection with the provision of accommodation and services under part 3 of the Children Act 1989. She has been particularly involved in cases involving migrant families, and also frequently advises on issues arising from asylum support provision. She is a pro bono advocate at the First-Tier Tribunal (Asylum Support) on behalf of the Asylum Support Appeals Project.
Discrimination law
Alison has a keen interest in discrimination issues. She has been instructed to advise on potential discrimination claims arising in the prison, mental health, education and public authority fields.
Recent publications
Alison is an editor (with Joe Middleton) of the International and European Human Rights Cases section of Butterworths Immigration Law Service. She has also published the following: - Chapter 7: Arrest and Detention (with Ruth Brander) in Colvin & Cooper (Eds), Human Rights in the Investigation and Prosecution of Crime (OUP, 2009).
- "Counting the Cost", New Law Journal, 22 May 2009
- Case analysis: EM (Lebanon) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (with Alex Gask), European Human Rights Law Review, Issue 1 2009
Previous experience
Prior to coming to the Bar, Alison worked for six years as an immigration caseworker and advocate at RMJ and two solicitors firms. She specialised in asylum and refugee issues. She prepared cases and acted as advocate on behalf of appellants in the Asylum & Immigration Tribunal both in first instance appeals and on reconsideration. Alison's MA dissertation considered UK asylum law and policy in the context of "Fortress Europe". In 1998 - 1999, Alison spent a year as a research intern at the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) in Budapest.
Professional associations: memberships and activities
- Alison is a member of the following professional associations:
- Administrative Law Bar Association
- Human Rights Lawyers' Association
- Immigration Law Practitioners' Association (ILPA). Alison represents ILPA on the National Asylum Stakeholder Operational Forum and drafted its response to the Asylum Support Consultation in early 2010.
- Association of Prison Lawyers.
Alison was actively involved in the response to the government's recent consultation on reforms to civil legal aid. She gave a briefing to Young Legal Aid Lawyers on using the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to challenge the removal of legal aid. She contributed to the immigration section of the Bar Council's Civil Legal Aid Committee response and drafted the response of Doughty Street's Immigration Team (available here).
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Year of Call
2007
Education
BA (Hons) (Cantab), MA (London) Understanding and Securing Human Rights (Distinction), PgDL (Distinction), Middle Temple Queen Mother Scholar
Email Address
a.pickup@doughtystreet.co.uk
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Specialist Teams
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